258 
Literary and Critical Proemium. 
was exposed by these enormities, that they 
endeavoured rather to deny the facts, than 
to remedy the mischief. * In this work, 
however, those facts are set forth in glar¬ 
ing and undeniable characters, before the 
eyes of Europe ; and it is proved that the 
worst excesses of the revolution have been 
fully equalled in the outrages committed 
under the eyes, and by the connivance of 
the local magistracy, by organized bands of 
assassins, upon the innocent and defence¬ 
less protestants of Nismes and the adjacent 
country. The detail of their sufferings is 
almost too painful for narration. Rapine 
and murder of the most wanton description, 
and aggravated by circumstances of incon¬ 
ceivable brutality, seem to have been let 
loose upon the reformed church, in the 
very spirit of the massacre of St. Bartho¬ 
lomew’s day. A repetition of that day was 
indeed threatened and concerted. With 
the exception of the Hundred Days, during 
which Napoleon’s return restored tranquil¬ 
lity, such has, at intervals, been the fate of 
these unfortunate protestants ; nor do they 
possess auy security against the future 
renewal of such scenes, except in the gene¬ 
ral and improving spirit of the nation. In 
a country where the principles of civil 
liberty and religious toleration have made 
any advances, crimes like these cannot 
long-be perpetrated with impunity. Pub¬ 
lic opinion will be too strong for them. To 
this state we have no doubt that France 
must soon arrive. But it is not upon the 
wretched and disgusting instruments of 
malignant bigotry and faction that our 
censure should chiefly fall ; they are 
merely the creatures which a wicked and 
corrupt government in church and state, 
for centuries back, has contributed to make 
them. It is to the political and ecclesias¬ 
tical tyranny, which deformed the French 
character, and which still struggles for ex¬ 
istence, that we are to trace the ferocious 
crimes with which their history is stained. 
With the reform of the constitution, the 
spirit of the people will fast improve, and 
by this process, more powerfully, perhaps, 
than by express laws, an end will be put to 
crimes which humiliate human nature, and 
make us “ blush to think that we are 
men.” 
Some interesting information will be 
found in Notes relating to the Manners 
and Customs of the Crim Tartars , by 
Mary Holderness, which are written 
with simplicity and spirit. The author re¬ 
sided in the Crimea four years, and has 
collected in this little work the result of 
her observations, from which a competent 
idea may be formed of the habits of the 
people, and the state of the country. The 
volume is ornamented with coloured plates, 
and forms altogether a pleasing and in¬ 
structive publication. 
We always find our time well employed 
[Oct. 1, 
in the perusal of any production of Mr. 
Charles Lloyd’s, and his Poetical Es¬ 
says on the character of Pope, as a poet 
and moralist, and on the language and ob¬ 
jects most fit for poetry, form no exception 
to this remark. In his strictures on Pope, 
Mr. Lloyd seems to fight under Mr. Bowles’ 
colours. He comments severely upon the 
immoral tendency of the Eloisa, and rejects 
with great scorn the principle on which 
Pope’s doctrine is mainly founded, that of 
self-love. Yet Pope intended to shew that 
“ true self-love and social are the same.” 
Mr. Lloyd seems to set him down as a kind 
of small but shrewd philosopher, and de¬ 
molishes him as a poet, by allowing him a 
g'reat deal of sense, but no imagination. 
On the other question, the author holds 
with Mr. Campbell, that objects of art afford 
the poet as much scope as those of nature : 
and he takes occasion to rebuke Mr. Words¬ 
worth in a friendly way, for confining his 
muse to the humble walks of life, being of 
opinion that 
“ Patrician annals often teem 
With sources of true interest, which no stress 
Of genius ever gave Shepherd or Shepherdess.” 
On all points like these, every man will 
have his peculiar opinion •, and Mr. Lloyd 
maintains his own in these Essays with 
much original thought and great inge¬ 
nuity ; yet we fear they will not be gener¬ 
ally read, the style being indeed the anti¬ 
podes to that of Pope, and labouring along 
in so harsh and cumbrous a manner, as to 
render the perusal a work of positive la¬ 
bour. What are we to say of such lines as 
these ? 
“ We say not so—we say, that when ’tis tried 
Our beings elements to subdivide 
Beyond variety original 
Of innate passions, which our species thrall, 
And to reduce them homogeneously 
Thus to one source, we act erroneously.” 
In spite of this drawback, the substan¬ 
tial merit of these Essays entitles them to 
attention ; and here and there, as particu¬ 
larly at the close of the first part of the re¬ 
marks on Pope, the reader will find burts 
of true poetical enthusiasm, with which he 
cannot fail to be pleased. 
The Excursions of a Spirit , a Vision , 
seems to be written with a religious and 
sober purpose j and yet it is not easy to sup¬ 
press a smile in the perusal. The subject 
is serious enough, being a speculation on 
the state of the soul after death, with some 
parts of which we are edified, and with 
many amused. The first act of the disem¬ 
bodied soul, is to make a domestic visit to 
the Peak in Derbyshire, and other curious 
places in England, not omitting- to perch 
on the summit of St. Paul’s. These jour¬ 
neys are extended till they embrace the 
grand tour of the world, including surveys 
of the North and South Poles, on each of 
which stands a lofty mountain, totally in¬ 
accessible to human approach—thus is that 
great 
